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Myth of debt ceiling

To The Editor:
Right now there is a debate between the president and Congress over the “debt ceiling”. Our national debt, which is a public debt, stands at 16.4 trillion dollars. This means the government has made every man women and child accountable for 52,486 dollars. The federal government collects from the taxpayers 2.2 Trillion. The politicians in Washington spent over 3.4 Trillion. They borrow 1.2 trillion; they have to do this in order to pay for what they feel is important. That means for every dollar the government spends, about 40 cents is borrowed. The interest on $16 trillion is now over $356 billion a year.

We now own so much money that our generation may not be able to pay it all back in our lifetime; our children will be burdened with our debt. A liability that we are placing on their backs, which they had no, says in. A debt that my generation helped to created, for its wants and desire.
Our government’s spending policy is not sustainable, that is why elected Republicans and Budgetary Conservative Democrats in Congress need to do the following today.

First: Slow down the growth of federal government, reduce spending.
Second: Level off the spending, stop borrowing money.
Third: And finally reduce spending below revenue, then pay off the national debt.

We the people have to remind our elected officials to take responsibility and move on this today, for tomorrow it will be too late. Congress controls the power of the purse. The Constitution’s 14th Amendment Article 1 Section 2, grants to Congress the power to “Borrow money -or not- on the credit of the United States.” And no one else!

The president tells us if Congress doesn’t raise the national debt ceiling we will have to default on paying the interest on the debt. We will have to reduce Social Security cut Medicare medicate cut defense. That is a myth and a scare tactic he uses to get the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
What he does not tell you is that the government still collects over $2.2 trillion in tax revenue. They are still going to collect taxes from us, even if the government is in a partial reduction. Congress can use this tax revenue to pay the interest on the debt. Pay Social Security, Medicate, Medicare and defense. Yes, there will be cutbacks, even elimination of some federal agencies. Every department and agency will have to be put under the microscope to be examined for waste, fraud inefficiency and purpose.

All this will have an effect on all of us; most of us are getting something directly or indirectly from the government. Regardless the government needs to reduce spending and live within its means. It’s not about us this time; it’s about the future of our children.
All this will go into effect March 1 unless the president and Congress can come up with a mutual agreement, a bipartisan plan, on eliminating our $16 trillion national debts within the next 10 years.